How the Gold Coast parties during the Commonwealth Games compared to more the more wholesale 1950s

Before there were highrises, nightclubs and bikini-clad meter maids, the Gold Coast was a wholesome holiday haven for ‘sun worshipers’. 

It was home to beach shacks and small corner shops instead of all-night entertainment catering for Year 12 Schoolies, bikies and more than 100,000 Commonwealth Games visitors.

Footage from the Commonwealth Government’s National Film and Sound Archive reveal what Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta were like in 1955 before mega highrise apartments mushroomed along the coastline.

Before there were highrises, nightclubs and bikini-clad meter maids, the Gold Coast was a wholesome holiday haven for ‘sun worshipers’

A decade after World War II ended, the old Department of the Interior was promoting the Gold Coast as a wholesome 'attraction for sun worshipers' from 'all over the land'

A decade after World War II ended, the old Department of the Interior was promoting the Gold Coast as a wholesome ‘attraction for sun worshipers’ from ‘all over the land’

The main streets of Surfers Paradise had single-storey shops instead of nightclubs such SinCity that stay open until 5am.

A decade after World War II ended, the old Department of the Interior was promoting the Gold Coast as a wholesome ‘attraction for sun worshipers’ from ‘all over the land’.

It produced a National Film and Sound Archive newsreel describing Surfers Paradise as ‘rapidly expanding’. 

In the era before luxury apartment hotels soared more than 200m into the sky, with even higher ones planned, Surfers Paradise hotels had pools right next to the footpath.

Footage from the Commonwealth government's National Film and Sound Archive reveals what Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta was like in 1955 before mega highrise apartments

Footage from the Commonwealth government’s National Film and Sound Archive reveals what Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta was like in 1955 before mega highrise apartments

In the era before luxury apartment hotels soared more than 200m into the sky, Surfers Paradise hotels had pools right next to the footpath

In the era before luxury apartment hotels soared more than 200m into the sky, Surfers Paradise hotels had pools right next to the footpath

Behind a low fence, swimmers in 1955 did laps next to the front porch ‘right on the main street’ at the two-storey Beachcomber Private Hotel.

This was before resort-style hotels began springing up along with foreshore in the 1960s at the start of a development boom.

The entertainment on the beach was also innocent, with the newsreel showing men and women in bathers on Greenmount Beach, at Coolangatta, doing the hokey pokey.

‘Outdoor demonstrations of the hoola, hoola dance encourage strangers to get together and have fun,’ the stentorian voice-over says.

The Gold Coast began shedding its wholesome image in the 1960s when Meter Maids in bikinis took to the streets to fill the parking machines

The Gold Coast began shedding its wholesome image in the 1960s when Meter Maids in bikinis took to the streets to fill the parking machines

The term 'white shoe brigade' emerged in the 1980s to describe the influx of showy and vulgar developers who saw the Gold Coast as a place to make a buck

The term ‘white shoe brigade’ emerged in the 1980s to describe the influx of showy and vulgar developers who saw the Gold Coast as a place to make a buck

The Gold Coast began shedding its wholesome image in the 1960s when meter maids in bikinis took to the streets to fill the parking machines.

The 1970s saw the debut of the annual Schoolies Week, which saw Year 12 graduates from across Australia flock to Surfers Paradise for a week of endless partying and possible romance.

The term ‘white shoe brigade’ emerged in the 1980s to describe the influx of showy and vulgar developers who saw the Gold Coast as a place to make a buck.  

The Gold Coast is also described as a ‘sunny place for shady people’ with a Broadbeach brawl outside a restaurant in September 2013 highlighting how the area had become a mecca for bikies.



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